Shiva or Rudra -The divine masculine!

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Namaste! Hope all of you are doing well and looking forward to holidays as part of Thanksgiving (U.SA.), Christmas and New year (the World). Many of you may be shopping, making plans and having resolutions for the new year. Wishing all of you success in all your holiday plans as well as your new year resolutions. 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to Thank all my blog readers, my heartfelt Thanks for your support, comments, and encouragements. Knowing that there are people who are interested in reading my blog through that sharing my thoughts, is truly humbling and it indeed brings tears to my eyes. Thank you!
 
Today, let us tackle another subject, different from the Goddess we were discussing last week. Divine masculine! We already discussed some aspects of the divine masculine under the post of archetypes. To refresh our memory, let us go back once more. Archetypes are the mythological figures and the symbols related to the historical stories we tell ourselves through yesteryear's and epics that seep through both our conscious and subconscious mind (mostly subconscious), which we assimilate as thought forms and patterns and later we enact these patterns and forms in our daily life as habits and values. Basically many times our daily lives are extensions of the historical perspectives, though we enact it unconsciously. So there are many different archetypes and one of them is the divine masculine. And in this post, we will be taking the example of Sri.Aurobindo to discuss the aspects of divine masculine


A young Sri Aurobindo
De jungi Aurobindo um 1900



Let us elaborate on the divine masculine. As previously mentioned there are aspects of all these archetypes in varying degrees in each one of us. That is what makes each one of us very unique and makes all of us the differing notes on the divine orchestra. Now the aspect of the masculine brings in us the ambition to make something of ourselves, have the power to go into the world, and capture the opportunity to make a reality of our dreams.For this, the drive, ambition and the go-getter attitude of the divine masculine are needed. If we are fearful or shy that can be a big obstacle towards our realization of our goals. But within the archetype of divine masculine itself, there can be shades of very different manifestations. So that is what we are going to discuss today. The divine masculine can manifest in our life as Shiva or Rudra. (As mentioned before, this aspect has manifestations in all, so this post is for males as well as females ;-) ). 

Mythology: Now before proceeding further let us look at Shiva and Rudra through the eyes of Mythology. In the early Vedas, there is a terrible and fierce storm God called Rudra, who was fierce and wild. There it seems only a few mentions of Shiva, according to Wikipedia. Anyway, in the later post-Veda time, it seems Shiva as a kind and benevolent God made his appearance. But in today's Mythology Shiva is considered the 'Swayambhu' (Swayam - By itself, bhu - originated), who originated without by being born or who came himself into existence. As previously mentioned in Mythology and Philosophy, if we go searching for proof, we only find closed doors as this domain deals with how we put those aspects to use in our life. 

Now according to later stories, Shiva was married to Sathi, who was the daughter of Daksha, one of the Prajapathis (Praja - people, Pathi - protector), basically protector of the people. Even though Sathi married Shiva, Daksha was not fond of Shiva. This because Daksha was considered very wealthy, while Shiva who was a Yogi God was not interested in wealth and prosperity and basically was living a simple life of a hermit in the forest. (The same case of a daughter of a wealthy father marrying a poor chap due to his knowledge and wisdom and the father not approving of the marriage, in human terms, :-) ).

Daksha wanted to show off his wealth to all (Divine beings can also become egoistic as Maya can affect humans as well as Gods) and he decided to do a Daksha Yaga (a sacred sacrifice done by fire ritual by Daksha). He invited everyone except, Shiva of course due to Daksha's anger towards Shiva. Now Shiva is a Yogi and he didn't care much for the invitation and like any person decided not to go.

But the case of Sathi was different. She wanted to go and have a nice time with her sisters and mother. So she came near Shiva and asked gently,"Can I go to my father's yaga and meet all my sister's and family?" Now Shiva knowing that she may not get proper respect at her father's place told her not to go. But then finally due to the constant pestering of Sathi, he allowed her to go.

Sathi was sent to her father's Yaga with all fanfare and even though Daksha didn't mind his daughter, her mother and sisters welcomed her. During any Yaga, oblations have to be given to Gods and Daksha gave respect to every God except Shiva. Sathi could not tolerate this, went and asked her dad to give respects to her husband as well and Daksha flatly rejected and started disrespecting Sathi as well with cruel words. (Remember, sometimes words can hurt even sharper than knives). Not able to handle this insult, Sathi jumped into the Yaga fire and ended her life. Till now Shiva was the calm and the benevolent God.

Once Shiva came to know what happened to Sathi through his associates (lesser Gods called Shivaganas), he became terribly angry and with his group went to the Yagasala (the place where the Yaga was taking place). He was so angry, Shiva forgot himself and took the form of Rudra, who is angry, fierce and wild. In his anger, he started dancing with terrible moves and steps, so that the whole crowd got frightened and he ordered his Ganas to rain in the destruction of the Yaga. The Shivaganas, who were considered already terrible looking began to kill, torture, wound and even slaughter people. Shiva in his anger plucked a few hairs from his head and struck it on the floor and two terrible beings, Veerabhadra (male) and Bhadrakali (female) emerged and they started devouring on the people and all this reign of terror finally lead to the decapitation of Daksha. Phew! What a terrible scene even to imagine!

Daksha Yagna
See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It is always better to discuss a Mythological aspect by bringing it to our everyday life with an example. In the example we are going to discuss the Rudra aspect we will discuss as the anger and the firebrand nature of this personality. Rudra can manifest as either all destroying or someone who uses that energy to his/ her life works with firebrand passion and enthusiasm. The personality we are going to discuss comes in this category.

Sri Aurobindo:  Sri.Aurobindo was a political activist, philosopher, yogi, guru and a spiritual master. Even though in his young age he had a few spiritual experiences, because his father Krishna Dhun Ghose wanted his sons to have a British education, he and his brothers were sent to England where they acquired a good English education. Aurobindo Ghose (as he was called at that time) studied several languages and used to write English poetry and essay. Even though he applied to Indian Civil Service (ICS) as per his father's wish, later didn't join as it would have been serving the British government. 

Part 1: Instead, Aurobindo Ghose joined the Nationalist movement. He started studying the French rebellion and revolutions against British and became inspired in putting forth revolutionary ideas and bringing young blood into the folds of the freedom movement of India. His fiery essays inspired a lot of young people and though he supported non-cooperation and passive protest in public, in private he was for revolutionary ideas and was ready to take up arms in case the passive resistance didn't work out.

In 1907, (Ref: Wikipedia)  in the Surat session of Congress, the people split into extremists and moderates and Aurobindo Ghose sided with the extremists, along side Bala Gangadhara Tilak and Aurobindo was arrested related to the Alipore bomb case. Later he was acquitted due to lack of enough evidence, even though only after a year of prison time.

Image of Aurobindo Ghose in Alipore prison
See page for author [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


Here let us come to the analysis. Aurobindo Ghose had a lot of anger against the British as he considered India as his mother in the form of land. There is a saying in Sanskrit,

          "Janani Janmabhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi".

Meaning:  "Mother and the land in which one is born is greater than the heaven". So this made Aurobindo Ghose very angry against the British and instead of winning the ICS exam, he decided to join the nationalist movement and do something to free his mother India. Remember in the Rudra story, Shiva was insulted and later he lost his wife Sathi, which brought a lot of anger to Shiva so that he took action and brought his fierce form of Rudra to get his justice. In the case of Aurobindo Ghose also he related himself to all the horror and atrocities happening in India and fellow Indians and felt deceived by British (British had come to India just for trade and later conquered India than trading with India) and wanted justice and freedom for India. Here we can feel the anger and the fierce energy felt by Aurobindo Ghose which came out as fiery essays, revolutionary ideas, and rebellion in the form of throwing a bomb at a carriage carrying two British ladies. Rudra is the active form of Shiva, which wants to spend physical energy in the form of war, rebellion, revolution and firebrand speeches. In this chapter of Aurobindo Ghose's life, we get to see the active energy in the form of  Rudra.

Part 2:  As previously mentioned Aurobindo Ghose was incarcerated for a period of one year. Here he had taken up meditation and later in his writings he has mentioned he felt the presence of 'Swami Vivekananda' in the prison cell and heard the Swami's voice for a fortnight. Anyway, after his one year time in the prison, Aurobindo Ghose became a changed man. He started publishing a newspaper called 'Karmayogin', later he moved to Pondicherry, which was then a French colony where he cannot be prosecuted for his fiery essays against the British.

In Pondicherry, he started writing on Spirituality and Philosophy, including books on The Upanishads, Essays on the Gita, Secrets of the Veda and many more. By 1926, there was a huge following for him and an ashram (monastery) called Sri Aurobindo Ashram was built and from then on he started signing as Sri. Aurobindo (Sri - Auspicious). Sri. Aurobindo wrote many letters and essays and later he restarted finishing his famous epic poem called 'Savithri', which he kept on working on until his last days. He passed away on December 5, 1950, and it seems his body emitted an ethereal light or glow for a long time.

Now in the second part, we can see the Rudra form of Aurobindo Ghose changing into the yogic Shiva form of Sri. Aurobindo. In his life at Pondicherry (Puducherry nowadays), he transformed into a Guru or Yogi who was giving spiritual, yogic and philosophical guidance to many. At this stage in his life Sri. Aurobindo didn't have his fire and anger and became a calming presence in the life of many. Shiva in Mythology is considered a Yogi who is always in meditation, yoga, and penance. He is very calm and compassionate and is not considered angry and wild. Shiva is so compassionate he is called 'KshipraPrasadi' or someone who becomes pleased at a devotee in split second and there are many stories of Shiva getting into troubles due to giving boons as a split second decision. So during his second part of his life Sri. Aurobindo became a Shiva himself being calm, compassionate and kind.


Shiva in a meditative pose


Analysis:  Now here we can see with this example in Sri. Aurobindo the divine masculine existed as Rudra in the first half and as Shiva in the second half. What can we infer from this? Taking this example in each of us the divine masculine exists as a seed of potential, dormant inside us waiting to grow. According to the way we nurture it can grow and manifest outside as Rudra or Shiva. Rudra is the wild, untamed, angry energy, which can unleash terror and fear in the world (Watch the news and we can find a lot of examples for this), while Shiva is the calming and compassionate presence who is there to help us and guide us towards our sacred path in this world. Look around us, we can see Shiva as our parents, partners, friends, and family, who are there to help us, hold us and encourage us.

Sri. Aurobindo
By Henri Cartier-Bresson [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons



Now, should we bring out and manifest the divine masculine as Shiva or Rudra? Which will deliver us to the beautiful authentic path that is waiting for us? It is always our.....free will and choice. So let us choose wisely to become the best for our lives and to capture our Swaroopa (Authentic Self)!!

I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Life - Going with the flow!

Note: Images made by Swaroopa and from the Wikimedia Commons.


Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".  


 
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